Skip to main content

Create a repair

New repair is a one-page form for logging a customer's piece — a repair, a replating, or a replacement — whether or not you can find the original order. As you add each piece, SKU.io checks its warranty coverage live, so you know before you save whether the customer pays, you cover it under warranty, or it's a goodwill case.

Before you begin​

  • You need the Create repairs permission. Without it, New repair opens with a warning banner reading "You need the Create repairs permission to log a repair," and every field is disabled.
  • Have the customer's order number, Shopify order number, Amazon order ID, warranty registration number, or the piece's serial number handy — any one of them finds the purchase.
  • If there's no order to find, you'll still need to record where the piece was bought and when, so coverage has something to check against.

1. Open New repair​

Go to Orders → Repairs → List and click New repair in the top-right corner. SKU.io opens the form with four sections: 1. Customer and purchase, 2. Pieces, 3. Getting the piece in, and a Summary panel that saves the case.

Starting from elsewhere in the app​

You rarely start from a blank form. A Create repair button appears, already filled in with the right order, line, serial or RMA, in several other places:

  • A sales order's line items grid.
  • An RMA's detail page.
  • A serial number's detail page.
  • The Repairs card embedded on a customer, product, supplier, or sales order page.

If a serial is already on an open repair, that button is disabled instead, with the tooltip "This unit is already in an open repair — open it from the repair history below."

2. Find the purchase​

In Customer and purchase, search by order number, Shopify order number, Amazon order ID, warranty registration number, or serial number. Matches list below the search box — each with a Use button — and if there's exactly one matching order and no matching registration, SKU.io selects it for you.

  • Picking an order fills in the customer and loads its lines, ready to add in the next section.
  • Picking a registration fills in the customer too, and — if the registration came from an order line — pulls in that order as well, so coverage still runs off the real purchase date rather than the registration date.

No order on file​

If nothing matches, or you'd rather not search, switch to No order on file. SKU.io then asks:

  • Where it was bought — a retailer or department store, a wholesale partner, your own website (order not found), Amazon, a gift, or somewhere else.
  • Retailer name — only asked when the source needs one (not for your website, Amazon, or a gift).
  • Purchase date.
  • Receipt (optional) — a photo or PDF. "A retailer receipt counts as proof of purchase (with a low-risk flag for review)."

When you save, SKU.io registers each matched piece as its own warranty registration, carrying this purchase source, retailer, date, and receipt — so coverage has something to evaluate, the same as if the customer had registered it themselves. See Manage warranty registrations.

3. Add the pieces​

Under Pieces, add what the customer brought in:

  • Add from order — a menu of the order's remaining lines, when an order is selected.
  • Add piece — a blank piece card, for anything else (used for "no order on file," or an extra item).

Each piece card asks for:

  • Product — pick a real product (the field shows its name, with the SKU under each option in the list), or type the customer's own description. The list offers only finished pieces; repair parts such as replacement chains, clasps, and jump rings never appear here. Before you type, the list reads Type to search by SKU or name; while it searches it reads Searching…, and only a search that finds nothing reads No products match — use the customer's words instead. A typed description saves as free text and flags the piece Needs product match, so someone matches it to a real SKU later (see below).
  • What the customer wants — Repair, Replate, or Replace.
  • Quantity — locked to 1 once a serial number is attached.
  • Serial and Lot — the serial comes from the order, registration, or serial page you started from; it's read-only here.
  • What's wrong — pick one or more issue types (for example Clasp › Lobster clasp broken, Plating › Tarnish). Type a few letters to narrow the list; each pick clears the search and closes the list.
  • Description — the problem in the customer's own words.
  • Add photos or video.

Which piece of the set?​

If the matched product is a set — a kit with named pieces, shown as · set beside its SKU in Add from order — a row of chips under Which piece of the set? lets you pick The whole set or one named piece. Picking a component targets that piece specifically for repair, while coverage still follows the set's own purchase date — "Coverage uses the set's purchase date; a replacement can ship just this piece."

4. Check — and if needed, override — coverage​

As soon as a piece has a product, SKU.io checks its coverage — the box reads Checking coverage… for a moment — and shows a live Coverage result on its card: In warranty, Out of warranty, or Goodwill, with the matched policy and term, and the reasons behind the decision. See How warranty coverage is decided.

If the check can't run — a dropped connection, say — the box reads Couldn't check coverage with the error and a Retry button that runs it again.

If the piece is discontinued, a note suggests a credit at the price paid instead of a repair.

To set coverage yourself instead of accepting the result — a VIP customer, or a goodwill exception — click Override. You need the Override coverage permission; without it, the button is hidden behind a tooltip explaining why. Choose In warranty, Out of warranty, or Goodwill, and type a reason of at least 3 characters — the override won't save without one. Cancel override reverts to the computed result.

The override itself is applied right after the repair is created, as a separate step for each overridden piece. If that follow-up step fails for one piece, the repair still saves — you'll see a warning telling you to finish the override from the repair page.

5. Say how the piece is getting in​

Under Getting the piece in, set:

  • Receiving warehouse — where the piece is repaired. It starts on your repairs default — the Receiving warehouse for outside claims in Configure general repair settings — or your store's default warehouse if that's blank. To receive somewhere else, type part of a warehouse's name to search. The list holds only your own warehouses and 3PLs, by name; a 3PL shows 3PL under its name, and your repairs default shows Default for repairs.
  • Customer contact — an email and phone for updates (optional). The email fills in from the customer you picked.
  • How the piece gets to you — Customer ships it, Drop-off, Already received, or No return needed.

Choosing Customer ships it offers Email the customer a prepaid return label. See Buy a shipping label with Shippo for how return labels work.

Create an RMA so the receive station recognises the piece when it arrives is on by default, and keeps the receive station in sync when the parcel shows up. It's switched off and disabled automatically for No return needed — "No RMA is needed when the piece isn't coming back." See Configure returns settings for the matching return settings.

If you have the Update repairs permission, you can also switch on Lend the customer a loaner while theirs is away and pick a Loaner product. Pick one that's ticked Loaner eligible on its product page (Overview → Details → Edit) and has stock at the receiving warehouse. If the loaner can't be issued, the repair still saves, with a warning to finish the loaner from the repair page. Without the permission, the switch is disabled with the reason in its tooltip.

6. Save as a draft or submit​

The Summary panel on the right recaps the customer, order, every piece added so far with its coverage chip, and a switch for Email the customer "Repair request received" on submit.

  • Save as draft — stores the case internally. The customer is never notified, and nothing starts yet.
  • Submit repair — moves the case to Awaiting item (or straight to In progress if every piece is already in hand), and — unless you turn the switch off — emails the customer that their repair request was received.

Both buttons are disabled, with a tooltip explaining why, until a customer and warehouse are chosen, any photo finishes uploading, every piece has a product or a description, and any coverage override has a reason. Submit repair also needs at least one piece.

On success, SKU.io opens the new repair straight away, numbered like RO-2026-00412 (the year plus a 5-digit sequence; your tenant can set its own prefix). Tags printed for an individual piece read <repair number>-L<piece number> — for example RO-2026-00412-L2.

If the order came from Shopify, your tenant can turn on a setting that tags that Shopify order Repair RO-… and adds a matching order note as soon as the repair is created, so store staff see it without leaving Shopify admin. It's off by default — see Configure general repair settings.

"Serial is already on an open repair"​

If a serial you picked is already an open piece on another repair, saving fails with "Serial <serial> is already on open repair RO-…," and the error adds an Open RO-… link straight to the conflicting repair. The same check applies when you add or change a serial on an existing repair.

"Needs product match"​

A piece the customer described in free text, rather than a product you picked, shows a purple Match chip wherever it appears — on the repairs list, the board, and the repair's own Units tab. Match it with Match product on the repair's Piece & origin card; like the Product field, its list offers only finished pieces. Matching it to a real product (and, for a set, the right component) clears the flag, re-checks coverage, and — if the repair already has an RMA — adds the newly identified piece onto it.

Next steps​

Video transcript

To log a customer's repair or warranty claim, open Orders, then Repairs, and select List. It opens on every active case, with its coverage and stage. Click New repair in the top-right corner to open the form. Search with the order number, from your own store or any marketplace. Registration codes and serials work in the same box. Press Enter to bring up the matching order and customer. With only one order line, that piece is added to the Pieces section. Under What's wrong, type a few letters to narrow the list of issue types. Then pick the one that matches the damage. Last, describe the problem in the customer's own words. SKU checks the piece's warranty coverage as soon as it has a product. It shows the matched policy and the rules behind its decision. To change the outcome, use the Override button in the coverage box. Scroll down to Getting the piece in, which covers how the piece arrives. The receiving warehouse starts on your default for repairs. To send it somewhere else, search that field by name. Then choose how the piece reaches you, such as a drop-off at the store. SKU creates an RMA automatically, so the receive station recognises the package. First, review the summary panel on the right side of the page. Click Submit repair to save it, and SKU creates the matching return authorization. The new case opens at once, with its own number at the top. The chips beside it show its current status and its coverage. The next two track its SLA and its decision clock.

Last verified: